Wednesday, 31 October 2012

Cthulhu Construction Kit

A little knowledge is dangerous thing. You and your
friends have been reading things that no man should. Now, armed with a family
friendly copy of Das Necronomicon, you want to be the first
to have your own Elder God, even if that means doing it in your own backyard.
As a devoted cultist of unnameable things, you want to prove that devotion by
being the first to build said Elder God. If that means taking your trusty
Remington Autoloading Model 11-87™ shotgun, sneaking into their yards, and
blasting a hole in the tentacles of their Elder Gods, well surely that is a
sign of your true devotion, right?

This is the set-up for Building
an Elder God – A Game of Lovecraftian Construction, the
first game from Signal Fire Studios. Designed for play by two to five players,
aged six and up, it is a casual card game can be played in about twenty minutes
or so. The aim of the game is the first to build an Elder God of a certain
length, this length varying according to the number of players. The play of the
game means that a reasonably sized table is required.

The game consists of one-hundred-and-twenty full
colour cards and a large, four-page rules leaflet. The cards consist of
Monster, Damage, Immune, Elder Sign, and Necronomicon cards, with the Monster
cards further divided in Body, Mouth, Tentacle, Split, Eyestalk, and Mouth
cards. The Monster cards are what you use to build your Elder God; the Damage
cards to blast holes in your rivals’ Elder Gods; the Immune cards to protect
against Damage cards; and the Necronomicon cards are used to heal your Elder
God when it takes damage. The Elder Sign cards are used in a variant to banish
parts of both a rival’s Elder God and your Elder God. All of the cards are done
in full colour, with the Monster cards depicting tentacular body parts in
Mythosy green and the Damage cards being spattered with deep burgundy ichor.

Each player starts the game with a Body, a Mouth,
and two Necronomicon cards, as well as a hand of five cards. The Body card is
placed down on the table with the open end facing away from him. On a turn, a
player draws a fresh card and then plays one card. This can be to grow his
Elder God by adding a Tentacle, a Split, or an Eyestalk card. Any card played
in this fashion must be played vertically, which means that each player’s Elder
God will grow towards the centre of the table. If a player manages to lay down
the number of Monster cards required to win, he can top off his Elder God with
its Mouth after laying the last Monster card and can thus win the game.

Alternatively, a player can attack a rival’s Elder
God by blasting a hole in it with a Damage card, or if a player’s Elder God is
damaged, he can heal it. This can be done with either one of his Necronomicon
cards or with a Body card that matches the damaged one.

And that is about that. Physically, Building
an Elder God is an attractive game, although given its
intended age range, it is a pity that the cards could not have been done on a
glossy stock better able to handle sticky fingers. The rules are clearly
written, though it would have been nice if they had been done in colour.

If there is an issue with Building
an Elder God it is the intended age range. Whilst the game
is simple enough, its subject matter might not be suitable to players as young
as six years old. Unless of course, they have already been inducted into the
worship of the Elder Gods. At the other end of the scale, Building
an Elder God might be too casual a game and too light a
treatment of its subject – even for what is a filler game. Otherwise, Building
an Elder God – A Game of Lovecraftian Construction is
something quick and simple, not to say undemanding, to play between or before
other games.

For Your Information

A gamer for over thirty-five years, Pookie has been reviewing games and saying mostly nice things about them for ten of them. His reviews have appeared in Steve Jackson Games' Pyramid and Journal of the Traveller's Aid Society, Campaign Magazine, Games International, The Unspeakable Oath, at OgreCave.com, and elsewhere. Currently they appear regularly at Reviews from R'lyeh.

He has edited titles for Triple Ace Games for the Sundered Skies setting; for Goodman Games' Age of Cthulhu line; for Lamentations of the Flame Princess Weird Fantasy Roleplay; for Call of Cthulhu from SixtyStone Press; and various others.

Other facts about Pookie:

He is English.He likes tea.

He has been known as Pookie since he was seven.The nickname has nothing whatsoever to do with small bears and is more leptoidal in nature.The Klingon in him is fond of prunes.